First Weeks of French Horn!

  I recently wanted to prove that "16 Weeks to Killer Chops" works as well with French Horn as it does for Trumpet and Trombone.  The easiest way to do this is to actually use it.  I've never played Horn, so I decided I would try to rent or purchase one.  I finally found a single horn that I could afford and purchased it.  I learned a lot about the horn and the peculiarities of it.  First, I discovered that the Horn goes an octave lower than I thought it did.  That made me rework the exercises of "16 Weeks" and also rethink the path that the lessons will take.  As far as if it works, after a month of starting the Horn, I have a 3 octave usable range and can actually play a lot of songs musically.  I've found that I do better on songs that I know and can sing and hear the intervals.  Since so many notes can be played with the same fingerings, I have to be very sure of the pitch I'm going for.  I've also found that work on the Horn seems to help my Trumpet playing which is a great thing.  I seemed to be stuck again about Week 9/10 and after working on the Horn for a month, I jumped right up to 11/12.  I would love some feed back from other Horn players, so I will be offering the first week for free to get you started.  Check out www.danotman-music.com/products.html. 



Dano

More is NOT always better

I've been stuck on Week 9 of my plan for quite awhile now, longer than a week.  I've warned you that this is likely to happen.  A couple of weeks into it, The Balanced Embouchure Method by Jeff Smiley arrived and I started with it.  Using his tricks with my lessons seemed to be a magical mix.  I was so inspired I started playing one session in the morning before work and another at night when I got home.  I still seemed to be stuck at certain points in the lesson.  Then I read about a new exercise program that reinforced to me the importance of RESTING.  Now I've cut back to once a day and only five days a week of the lessons, but I'm noticing improvement in just the past two days.  So once again, more is NOT always better, but persistence is.

Another update

As you know, I've been playing in the Nashville Community Concert Band.    This past Memorial Day  weekend, we had 3 concerts scheduled, two on Sunday and one on Monday.  These were 1 hour long concerts and I was concerned if I would be up to the task to play these.  Between the first and second ones on Sunday, many of the brass players were complaining about how tired they were and that they wouldn't play anything until the concert started.  I was feeling pretty good.  As a matter of fact, after the second hour long concert that day, I felt like I could play another one, or go home and practice some more.  I have only been back playing for about 8 months now after being away from the horn for almost 10 years.  I have been consistently playing the "16 Weeks" program and playing in the Concert Band weekly rehearsals.  Obviously, this stuff works!  Click HERE to get started with it now.

Reality check

I thought I'd catch everyone up on where I am in the "16 Weeks to Killer Chops" program.  First, here's some background.  I hadn't played consistently since 2003.  I got this brainstorm about being able to market this product online in September of 2010.  I started getting prepared and began development the first of October.  I also had to start playing the lessons (mostly to find mistakes and correct them) to verify that following the program really worked.  As I suspected, life interfered.  As it is for many of you, I work a full time job, have a family and wanted to make some time to practice trumpet and get back in shape.  Unlike you, I had to develop the product, build the web site and the internet marketing machine (or find someone who would do it for free) AND build the business model for all this.  I had ZERO experience with these last three items.  Then, of course, we got into Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.  As of this writing, it is the end of February.  I am at Week 7!  Still struggling with it.  That gap between top staff E and G has always been one of my barriers.  Go HERE to read about me in 8th grade band and my struggles with that top E.  (The difference is that I really did nail that solo, but that isn't as interesting to read.)  I know that the course is titled "16 Weeks" and you're sort of led to believe that you can make it through the entire thing in 4 months, but the truth is, if you can make it through the course in 16 weeks, you already HAVE killer chops.  You may progress faster because you don't have all the distractions that I do (like typing this Blog).  If you're older (I'm 50) and haven't played since high school, you may be slower.  Everyone's different.  I thought maybe a report on my progress would help give you an idea of what you may expect.
  I realized that I basically have three groups that I'm working with: young students just starting out (Startup Kids), older folks who haven't played in a while (Comeback Kids) and people who are actively playing and want to improve (I don't have a cute name for you...yet). So to start, you have to choose which description is closest to you, leave me your name and e-mail address so I can start sending you the "Secrets" to building range and endurance (and success in anything you do) and get a look at the samples to start getting a feel for the program.  This program isn't for everyone.  If you aren't willing to devote some time to practicing your craft, this isn't for you.  If you don't like to have fun practicing, this isn't for you.  If you hate the thought of having an organized, step by step lesson plan for improving your range and endurance, then this is definitely NOT for you.  If you are ready, then click HERE to get started now. 

Thanks for reading,
Dano

Hello, my name is...

Quoted from Face Book:

Keith Fiala

Hello... my name is Keith Fiala, and I am an addict! I've been addicted to trumpet for as long as I can remember. :-) Hey - at least I can admit it!

I realized after reading Keith's post that this described me too!  Does it describe you too?  I've denied admitting this until recently, but now that I've recognized it, there's no going back.  My best days have usually involved music and trumpet playing.  Come forward and admit your addiction.

Dano 

 

Linking it all together

I'm trying to figure out all this social media linking.  These are new adventures for a trumpet player who plays an engineer on TV!  Check out the web site, leave your info for some great information and have a great day.

Week 1 Video Blog

The First Secret to Building Range and Endurance

This is the first in a series of 'secrets' I'm giving away to prepare you for becoming the player you've always dreamed of being.  The truth is that this awesome player is and has been in you all along.  You were born with it, everybody is.  This is no secret.  We know it when we take the time to look inside.  The first 'secret' to be revealed is this:  "Take Action"!  That's it!  The 'secret' to accomplishing any goal in life is that you HAVE to take action and DO SOMETHING.  You won't become a better player while you are sitting in front of the TV, drinking beer.  Now I work in TV as a day job, so I'm not saying "Don't watch TV.", but you will have to set some time aside to actually practice your horn IF YOU WANT TO GET BETTER.  To succeed, you need to have: a) specialized knowledge, that is b) intelligently organized.  "16 Weeks to Killer Chops" is all that and more.  It's also "FUN", so it makes you want to practice, so you 'take action' and become a better player.  To 'take action' click on the link below.
http://www.danotman-music.com/week-1-revised-10.html